arch_8ngel

I understand that social engineering attacks of one sort or another are the weak link, most of the time. -- using "hacking" in a very broad sense in the above comment. I guess i'm just not on the wavelength of what matters to you guys on this part of the conversation (saving to cloud vs physical backup), since to me the only "digital data" that really matters is banking and brokerage data -- which isn't really on my system anyway, though I'll definitely save backups of monthly statements. Anything work related, for me, is backed up on work servers, and can't legally be in the cloud somewhere anyway. And family pictures, etc -- they're in the cloud automatically on most phones, but aren't really something I care about someone stealing if there was a data breach. But even for those -- the risk of catastrophic loss if they're backed up at home is pretty low. EDIT: I'll certainly grant that if you live in CA wildfire country then the risk of total loss to fire is a more plausible concern than it is to the rest of us, though.

The total loss comment wasn't about passwords -- it was about the practical risk of losing backed-up data at home. Unless you live in CA wildfire country, the practical risk of total loss from a house fire is pretty low, or else homeowner's insurance would be WAY more expensive. Versus online services that are hacked by major state actors on a seemingly regular basis.

I'm not suggesting that there isn't at least "casual" racism associated with the killer's assumptions about the types of establishments he was attacking. But I do think this looks much more of an intent to violence against presumed sex workers, than against Asian women in general. (having lived in Atlanta, being familiar with where certain concentrations of certain demographics live, and knowing that there are WAY denser targets for generic racist violence against Asians, if that was the primary motivator) Not every murderer that is a white guy that lives in the deep south is overtly racially motivated. At some point you're going to need to accept that your apparent assumptions on that front are flawed.

For state of VA, this already happened with year-2020 taxes, and applied across the board. That is, if you, as an individual, crossed the $600 threshold, the payment servicers were required to generate a 1099-K. Strictly speaking, that doesn't automatically force you to report it on your own taxes, since 1099-K's are "informational". But realistically, if you don't report the number somewhere, the tax system will potentially spot it as a discrepancy. When the threshold was $20k and 200 transactions, there was a pretty strong case that anyone hitting that level could justify accounting for it as a business with associated deductions (postage, fees, mileage, etc). But at the $600 level, it is MUCH more likely that you're technically selling as a "hobby" and can't legally make those same deductions.

Reading more about that situation, and knowing what I do of the area it happened, it isn't that hard to believe it was primarily an attack on sex workers, and the racism-element was more baked-into the idea that "rub-and-tug" massage parlors in Atlanta are going to be worked by Asian women. As convenient as it is to point at racism as an initial apparent motive -- there are plenty of weirdos out there with sex-related hang-ups.

1) What are the odds of you suffering a total loss in a house fire, versus having online data compromised in some way? 2) I'll grant that there are living situations where a physical notebook could be problematic -- but in a stable situation, I prefer a discrete notebook in the real world to a digital password manager of any flavor.

Yeah -- "there is no cloud, only someone else's computer"

A properly configured laptop shouldn't be charging the battery to 100% (and maintaining that charge) when plugged in continuously. You have to adjust the BIOS settings, but you can get the charging algorithm to cycle power while plugged in, to maintain a healthier battery. Serious users with laptops have thunderbolt docks, that you can't reasonably unplug from, since multimonitor setups, etc are all anchored to the dock for day-to-day work, where the laptop is only used "portably" for business trips or additional work from home.

For sensitive things (bank accounts, brokerages, etc) -- you want to have unique usernames, as well. And 2-factor authentication when allowed. (and to mitigate social engineering attacks -- I use names that won't reverse-engineer easily AS WELL AS answering all of the "challenge questions" with arbitrary answers that don't correlate with the questions directly) To go along with that -- personally, I'm in the camp of keeping a discrete notebook with this information in favor of any digital password remembering system, since the risk of bad actors getting my digital stuff is way more likely than someone (1) breaking into my house, (2) happening to find the discrete notebook, and then (3) figuring out what it all means, before I'm able to reset credentials.

Could you clarify what you mean by this?

*Anything worth doing is worth doing badly. *Perfect is the enemy of "good enough". (i.e. "executing" often matters more than being the best, or anywhere close to the best) There is always someone better. Always. Anyone that seems like "the best" at the moment is still going to succumb to the march of time where whatever made them special declines with age, or better tools and more access make it easier for amateurs of a new generation to be "better" than the professionals of earlier times. So do what you enjoy -- whether you're the best or not. Try what you might enjoy. Do what you think could matter to somebody, even if that audience is just one person. But don't succumb to decision paralysis from worrying about being "anywhere close to the best".

Pretty sure there are smaller periodic broods on other cycles, as well, and the 13 / 17 year are the biggest ones.

My condolences. I'm very sorry to hear this.

Well, I don't live there anymore But that said -- I don't see ANY of the broods listed for my current area in coastal VA -- and we definitely get cicadas here, as well. I'll have to ask my local entomologist friend about it -- though they specialize in ticks.

I'm a little surprised by how sparse the map is for GA -- growing up there, cicadas were WAY more widespread than this seems suggest, and we had at least 3 different brood cycles that I can recall (the 13 year being the one for us that would sound like chainsaws running continuously in the distance)

My twin 14 TB drives finally showed up -- and it will take 26 hours EACH to run the full scans on them with SeaTools. So I guess I'm not shucking them until next weekend. On the upside, the video I saw for shucking the "Seagate Expansion" branded drives looks really easy -- but until I do, I won't find out exactly what kind of drive is in there.

Appt for my first shot (presumably Moderna) a week from Monday.

I was going to go with Bob Odenkirk dressed as Trump...

There is definitely a difference between what the form is literally intended to represent (a strict record of gross payments) and how the form is actually used. For a business -- it is easy to take those gross payments and with a schedule C deduct all of your costs, fees, basis, etc. For an individual -- we are put over a barrel with "hobby income" that effectively doesn't get to deduct anything, and if you don't have the 1099-K gross value show up SOMEWHERE on your taxes, you're probably running a risk.

DE has no SALES tax -- they definitely have a state income tax, though. We're pretty far afield of any of the states without income tax, unfortunately.

A number of states have set lower bars that force a 1099-K to be generated, and force the companies to share the 1099-K to the state. It was news to me, too, this year, when I found out that VA had set a threshold of $600 for generating the form. It isn't just eBay, it is any online service that falls within the $20k / 200 transaction rule (that we MOSTLY associated with Paypal, though the IRS rules are written more generically) EDIT: and the 1099K represents state income to be taxed, as well, not just federal. If you're in a zero-income-tax state, though, you'd be forgiven for being blissfully unaware of the distinction

Yeah, VA is getting screwed by this too. Pretty frustrating.

@DoctorEncore Thanks, I've downloaded it and will try it out when I have a chance. The 14TB externals I got on sale are STILL on back-order from Adorama...hopefully they still turn out to be what I expect (at least IronWolfs if not the server-grade drives, which some of this series were -- but evidently NONE of the externals in that SKU are barracudas, at least)

That's an interesting point -- determine how the damage obscures anything that isn't "flat background".

It is 100%, definitely, a refundable tax credit.